Coatings are applied to a wide variety of substrates to provide color and other visual effects, corrosion resistance, abrasion resistance, chemical resistance, and the like. In addition, various types of coatings, such as coatings applied to automotive substrates including vehicles and motorcycles, can be formed from compositions containing water-based dispersions such that the coatings can be baked and formed at low cure temperatures. Because these compositions can be baked at low cure temperatures, they have been found useful in forming multi-layer coatings which often include a topcoat layer applied over the basecoat layer. With respect to multi-layer coatings applied to metal substrates such as automotive substrates, a primer layer is also often applied. To shield the primer layer from ultraviolet light and provide protection against physical damage, a primer surfacer layer is separately applied over the primer layer. While the primer surfacer layer provides protective properties to the coating, the application of the primer surfacer layer requires additional coating steps and materials during the coating process.
It is accordingly an objective of the present invention to provide coating compositions that can be cured at comparatively low temperatures to form coatings having various properties and which also eliminates the need for a primer surfacer layer in multi-layer coatings, thereby reducing costs and increasing efficiency of coating processes such as in the automotive industry for example.